The Incredible Hulk

The Incredible Hulk

The casting of Edward Norton as the eponymous green galoot in The Incredible Hulk, the take-two revamp of the comic book franchise following Ang Lee’s 2003 critical and commercial disappointment, is not surprising. Almost all of the recent superhero franchises have been placed on the shoulders of actors known more for flexing acting chops than gym-sculpted physiques, and Norton’s history of playing loners, losers, and boy-next-door sociopaths places him in the off-casting pantheon next to such calculatedly “quirky” choices as Robert Downey Jr. in Iron Man, Christian Bale in Batman Begins, and Tobey Maguire in the Spider Man films. These leading men are meant to inject pathos and idiosyncrasy into films that might otherwise drown in a sea of cold digitized spectacle, insuring both comic geeks and cineastes that it’s okay to plop down twelve bucks, sink into the climate-controlled darkness of the mall megaplex, and get lost in a couple hours of grandiose escapism without feeling like complete sell-outs. (Is anyone else more than a little intrigued by the prospect of Seth Rogen in 2010’s Green Hornet? I can see the tagline now: He knocked you up . . . now he’ll knock you out!)